All Things Considered on WAMC

Calif. Gov. Jerry Brown and U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced a new $23.7 billion proposal that would build a twin tunnel system to carry water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta over to the southern part of the state.

Water in Southern California has become an intractable problem. The frustration was evident at the press conference, when Brown dropped a four-letter expletive.

The Sacramento Bee reports:

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is on a weeklong trip in which he's scheduled to meet with three prime ministers, give two speeches and attend the opening ceremonies of the London Olympics. On a more practical level, he'll also raise some campaign cash.

This trip is designed to highlight how Romney would fix the failings he sees in President Obama's foreign policy.

Romney opened his attack Tuesday while still in the U.S. In an address to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Reno, Nev., he lit into the Obama administration's relationship with Israel.

A man accused of crashing into a dozen cars in Burlington has denied the charges.

Police said 29-year-old Byung Lee, a web designer from Pennsylvania, slammed head-on into a car on Pine Street on Tuesday afternoon. The impact sent his vehicle careening into other parked cars.

The Burlington Free Press reports that police say Lee was agitated and was wrestled to the ground and restrained by firefighters and officers.

Lawyers for a former New York man in prison for the 1994 murder of his wife say new analysis of DNA evidence points strongly to his innocence.

The Rutland Herald and Barre-Montpelier Times Argus report that the prisoners' rights division of the defender general's office has filed court papers on behalf of John Grega, who was convicted in 1995 in the rape and murder of his wife, Christine, the previous year.

The Gregas were from Lake Grove, N.Y., on Long Island and were vacationing in West Dover when Christine Grega was killed.

President Obama's speech to the National Urban League conference in New Orleans on Wednesday night coincides with a debate over the role of government in helping small businesses succeed.

Some black Americans say they have an especially hard time when it comes to owning and operating their own businesses.

On the northern edge of New Orleans' French Quarter, Shaka Zulu and his wife, Na'imah, are trying desperately to protect a slice of local culture that sometimes gets lost here.

A Vermont preservation group has signed an option to buy a museum that traces the history and use of marble in the state.

Owners of the Vermont Marble Museum in Proctor had indicated they would close the museum by the end of the year.

Paul Bruhn of the Preservation Trust told Vermont Public Radio he would hate to see the museum's contents auctioned off.

He said the Preservation Trust signed an option on Tuesday to buy the museum's contents and the 90,000 square-foot building. He said the group is looking for someone to operate the museum.

To the uninitiated, Austin, Ind., doesn't look like a town under siege.

In the maze of back roads off the city's main drag, the houses are close together. Some look rundown; others are well-kept.

For Jeremy Stevens, these are his former drug haunts. Steven says many of the homes are inhabited by people who abuse and deal prescription painkillers.